Last week, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision that gives unionized employers in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, and Kentucky greater ability to modify medical benefits they provide to retirees pursuant to current...more

In Anderson v. DHL Retirement Pension Plan, the Ninth Circuit followed the First Circuit in finding that the elimination of the right to transfer an account balance from a defined contribution plan to a defined benefit plan...more

The Eastern District of Michigan has certified a class of ERISA plan participants challenging an amendment which, in attempt to address the plan’s underfunded status, reduced their monthly disability payments. The Court...more

CASES -
Post-Retirement Medical Benefits Under Siege. A recent spike in retiree benefit litigation is evidence of a growing interest among employers in strategies designed to contain, reduce, and eliminate the current...more

Now that some of the dust has settled on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. v. Windsor, employers who haven’t done so already should take immediate steps to review their retirement plan documents and administrative...more

In Roe v. Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, a federal district court addressed the issue of whether a self-funded health plan could include language that denied dependent coverage to same-sex spouses without violating Section...more

When the great Bill Parcells (go Big Blue!) was the head coach of the New England Patriots, he got into a tiff with owner Robert Kraft because Parcells wanted more of a say in the personnel decision-making process. Parcells...more

I love Las Vegas and I hate to gamble, which explains why I haven’t been to Atlantic City since 1995. I love the sights, sounds, the entertainment, the food, and everything but gambling. I hate gambling because I don’t like...more

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”), 29 U.S.C. § 1001, et seq., was passed with the goal of protecting plan assets so that those assets would be available for plan participants and beneficiaries. See...more

The transition of many companies from using traditional "final average pay" plans to "cash balance" pension plans in the last two decades has created significant employee discontent, and therefore substantial litigation. ...more

Executive Summary: ERISA “top hat” plan’s anti-alienation provision does not trump state garnishment laws.
A familiar feature of ERISA is its protection of a participant’s retirement savings from creditors; ERISA...more

In This Issue:
- Editors' Overview
- The Future Role of Experts in ERISA Class
- View from Proskauer: Health Insurance Exchanges and Retiree Medical Exits--Five Ways To Make Sure It's Really a "Soft...more

In McCorkle v. Bank of America Corp., decided on July 25, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of claims that a cash balance pension plan sponsored by Bank of America...more

The table below sets forth key filing and notice deadlines common to calendar year retirement and health and welfare plans through July. Please note that the deadlines will be different if your plan year is not the calendar...more